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The Ultra Game Boy mimics the form and function of Nintendo’s hit 1990s handheld. — AFP picNEW YORK, January 10 — A respected retro console manufacturer is getting in on Nintendo’s retro classics game.

Nintendo has spent the last couple of years manufacturing miniaturised versions of classic games consoles.

Now Hyperkin is making an early entry to the market with its latest buzz-friendly device: the Ultra Game Boy.

Shown to Gizmodo at CES 2018, the Ultra Game Boy mimics the form and function of Nintendo’s hit 1990s handheld.

An aluminum housing, backlight color dial, six-hour battery and USB-C charging port offer a number of useful improvements on the Game Boy.

Hyperkin is intending to market the final product at less than US$100 (RM400) by the time it arrives late Northern Summer, according to the report.

Nintendo has already struck a chord with its revivals of earlier home console systems.

The limited-run NES Classic Edition arrived in November 2016, a miniaturised version of its 1983 ancestor that came with a fixed roster of 21 games -- enthusiasts quickly discovered how to boost that number through file transfer ingenuity.

A SNES Classic Edition debuted in 2017, meaning that 1996’s Nintendo 64 would be next up according to chronological order.

For that reason, when a new European trademark filing for the N64 controller was discovered in July 2017, it was easy to conclude that an N64 Classic Edition was being prepared for the following year.

The Game Boy debuted in 1989 and, together with 1998’s Game Boy Color, has become the third-highest selling video game console to date, its 118 million total surpassed only by the later Nintendo DS (154m) and PlayStation 2 home console (over 155m.)

Shape-turning puzzle game Tetris, whose Game Boy edition was a blockbuster North American and European launch title, is still the best-selling video game of all time, while the Pokémon franchise made its worldwide debut on the trusty handheld.

As for Hyperkin, it has just launched the SupaRetronHD, a miniaturized SNES clone which takes original SNES cartridges. — AFP-Relaxnews